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Construction Complete!
March 18, 2024 by Adam in Family
Emma and I finished up the Little Free Library over the weekend and brought it over to Jamie's house for installation. Emma's not quite sure where it will go, but I talked through the steps of getting a post in the ground and attaching the post to the library. I imagine that will happen at some point. Emma was very proud of her efforts.
It was also a warm, sunny weekend with sowing seeds in the garden and doing a bit of cleanup. I somehow hurt one of the tendons in my foot on Friday, so I was limping around until recently. Fortunately icing it down and taking it easy seemed to do the trick Sunday afternoon. We also picked up a few games during the Steam sale, including dusting off the VR goggles to play the latest I Expect You To Die. It's a great spy game where you solve puzzles and thwart villians while trying to avoid dying in entertaining ways. Emma mostly played that while I played the cyberpunk survival-horror game Signalis.
Our wayward son continues to travel across the country, really enjoying Albuquerque and pondering hard about moving there. He's currently in Dixon, Seraph and Robbie's stomping grounds. Plans continue to be in flux, but he's having a great time exploring and trying to find a good place to settle down.
Next weekend is the start of some new D&D campaigns, so I'm printing out characters and getting things ready to go. Should be exciting.
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Mocha Friday
March 15, 2024 by Adam in Family
Yesterday was somewhat exciting, starting with a SpaceX rocket launch and ending with a pumpkin pie for Pi Day. I had a long chat with my wayward son, who has left Austin and his friends there and was calling from the woods near Albuquerque. He took a long hike through the White Sands dunes, a beetle the only animal he saw along the way. Today he's spending the day at a hiking gym and generally checking out the town. Next up is a couple days with friends of Seraph and then spending a week in Pheonix.
The school term is winding down, with Emma and Duncan working on final projects. Emma has been missing Russian Orthodox Easter, so she's convinced Seraph to team up and make it happen. Jo and I might get away for a day or so over spring break, though we're not organized yet. With the weather finally turning sunny and warm, I think we'll try to get some gardening done. There's also a little free library to finish. I'm also down to a week until the next round of D&D sessions and have some minis to print and sessions to prep for.
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Little Free Libraries
March 13, 2024 by Adam in Family
It was a dreary weekend after a sunny Friday, so we mostly stayed inside. Friday was a library trip. Saturday and Sunday Emma and I worked on a little Free Library for her mom's house. We rooted around the storage area under the porch and found an old window that ended up working well for the front and back. By the end of the weekend we finished most of it, though I think this weekend we'll finish the roof and keep applying layers of paint and varnish to preserve the wood.
The rest of the week is puttering along. Work is wacky and I feel thwarted more than I'd like. I'm preparing for the next D&D campaign and getting excited as I go. Evenings are relatively quiet - cooking dinner, puttering a little on the computer, and watching tv with a kitty on my lap. It's a pretty good life.
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Trophies!
March 08, 2024 by Adam in Family
It's mocha Friday, something I'm thankful for on these last cold and wet days of winter. The week has generally been uneventful. I keep forging ahead at work, though I feel I'm pretty far into the unknown. Jo had a sleep study Wednesday night. Ben's slowly feeling better and back at school full time.
I made some trophies for the Tomb of Annihilation players, double sized miniatures that I'm spray painting a single color. I'm happy with how they turned out and it seems a good way to say farewell to a two-year adventure. Lately I've been turning my eyes to the next Wild Beyond the Witchlight campaign. It's far more whimsical and focused more on roleplaying than combat. Jordan's friend Sam will be joining us, so it'll be a big group. Plus I'm using some new software, which I think will end up working out well.
As for the weekend, I've promised Emma a library trip. I'd love to get outside, but the dreary weather may make it another cozy one. Maybe we'll try our hand at some more woodworking.
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Endings and New Beginnings
March 04, 2024 by Adam in Family
The nearly two-year D&D campaign with the family ended on Saturday. They tromped through the dinosaur-filled jungle, plundered ancient temples, and made their way through a trap-filled dungeon to face an evil wizard. Seraph's character was turned into a goat-person. The friends they made along the way were freed from evil hags. The world was saved.
It was a little sad saying goodbye to that world, packing up the campaign book and miniatures. Fortunately we've got the next campaign ready to go. I've been reading it since last summer, printing and painting miniatures along the way. The players are excited about their new characters. I'm trying out some new software to help with maps and such. Over the weekend I put together a sound board with fun noises like monster yells and sword clangs. It's all about putting on a good performance, I suppose.
As for Sunday, it involved much puttering around. Jo finished putting together an electric trike for Duncan so that he can get to his appointments without us. Emma finished drawing a cathedral for her architecture class. We spent a fair amount of time in the shop, cleaning up, sharpening my grandfather's old woodworking tools, and trying on the new dremel-like tool to finish sanding Emma's bowl.
Now it's back to work, getting ready for a release and trying to figure out the brave new world of application development with Databricks. I keep making experimental thingies that kinda work, not yet brave enough to put it into the product. This may be the month that all changes - we'll see how it goes.
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Functioning Bathtub
March 01, 2024 by Adam in Family
Our bathtub was installed by the previous owner in such a way that it dripped down into Duncan's bedroom below. After several years of a hole in the ceiling and tray to catch the drips, we finally got organized to get our shower replaced. And by "we", I mean Jo, though I helped pick out tiles and open the door for the construction builders. There was a week of tearing out tiles and the old tub, then putting in new tiles and the new tub. Finally this week I tested out the new shower. I was surprisingly excited as I'd been hauling clothes and toiletries up and down the stairs to the main floor shower.
Jo and I went to the Oregon Contemporary Theater to see Cyclone, a musical comedy about a bunch of teens killed on a roller coaster and having to compete to see who gets to return to life. They were still working out some kinks of the production, but I had a good time going and felt very cultured seeing local plays two months in a row.
I feel I'm making progress at work, despite the overall disorganization. Hopefully it still stays fun and we get a little more clarity in the weeks ahead.
Tomorrow is D&D with the family, perhaps the last session in a nearly two-year campaign. Things don't look good for our heroes, but they've already saved the world, so just making it out of the dungeon alive is just icing on the cake. There's probably a life lesson in there somewhere.
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So Many Dungeons. So Many Dragons
February 26, 2024 by Adam in Family
Okay, there weren't any dragons, but I had back-to-back D&D games all weekend. There were so many funny voices, epic battles, and wrapping up year-long campaigns. The friend group escaped their dungeon with their loot, returning to their home base to find it all in flames. Soon they'll move on to a train heist, though the train is flying and they're moving between planes of existence. The family group finally ended the Death Curse and will soon face the great wizard who has caused all this trouble. It seems unlikely they'll all survive the experience, but at least they saved the day.
The rest of the weekend was pretty low-key. Emma and I visited the library on Friday. Saturday afternoon we did some woodworking, carving out more of her bowl and starting to make some molds for making tiles. Jo pruned the fig tree. Duncan had a school event. Pizza was eaten and anime watched.
Now it's back to work, fixing bugs and preparing for the future. Still trying to figure out what that means.
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Mocha Friday
February 23, 2024 by Adam in Family
My toothbrush has been perched on the main floor bathroom windowsill as the upstairs bathtub is replaced and the walls retiled. They guys working on it have been great and accomodating, dealing with the weird surprises of the DIY previous installation. The unsafe electrical outlet under the tub has been removed and the tub should no longer drip down into Duncan's room, so those things are a plus.
Otherwise I've kept forging ahead with work challenges, hopefully moving in the right direction despite the chaos. It's a back-to-back D&D weekend, sneaking up on the end of one campaign and the beginning of another.
In terms of the farm, mom called the pump people to get the well fixed. Jo and Abraham have been talking about remaining cleanup tasks. They want to wait until March before doing some of the cleanup. Hopefully we'll have some of the heavy slash removed and roads repaired soon. I think we'll need to jump into blackberry control before they spring back to life.
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Tromping around the Farm
February 19, 2024 by Adam in Family
It was a generally good weekend, if occasionally exhausting. Saturday Emma and I went to the library and turned some scrap cherry wood into utensils - a butter knife, a spatula, and a spoon. They all turned out a little rustic, but it was fun and Emma liked the end result. We found some cherry trees down at the farm, so it's likely we'll have an endless supply for our projects.
Sunday we headed out to the farm in the afternoon. It was the first time Ben had seen it, so he took a lot of pictures. I helped Jo load supplies into their shed to finish up the loft, then followed Emma down to the spook y shack. The goal was to cut some willow and plant it near the upper stream. I think we ended up with a couple dozen stalks. Theoretically they'll sprout and turn into new willow trees. There's quite a bit of erosion in the upper stream, so hopefully it helps.
We also took a look at the pump house. It had power, which is good. The box covering the well head had been knocked over, so we put that back. Water didn't really come out, so I'm not sure what's going on there.
This week we have people working on our bathroom, replacing tiles and hopefully installing the new tub properly. The hope is that it stops leaking into Duncan's room below and I can finally close up the ceiling.
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New Phone, Who Dis?
February 16, 2024 by Adam in Family
After a rough week of doing battle with Verizon, I have a new Pixel 8 Pro that generally seems to work. Previously the SIM card would periodically die and after three trips to the Verizon store, they seemed unable to help me. Fortunately I connected with a very nice tech support person and got that sorted out.
Work has been up and down quite a bit lately, but I'm hoping things are settling down. I keep trying to drive things forward, come hell or high water, and mostly feel successful. I also have a new manager - Tim - who I hope can help with some of the tricky things we need to work through.
Valentine's Day was low-key and nice - takeout and video games with Jo. My toe is still healing from the tree planting. I keep slathering on antibiotics and will likely need to cut back on running which seems to irritate it. I also just finished a 300+ episode rpg podcast which has made my dish washing, cooking, and other mundane chores far more entertaining. I have a couple audiobooks to listen to and then I'll start looking for another one.
As for the weekend, I'm excited to have some Emma hangout time. We might do woodworking. I'm sure we'll visit the library. It would also be nice to visit the farm if my toe is up for it.
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